The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1887-04-02

whoe situation.
Shortly afterwards body Of armed sol.
diers were marched out TO Camp jackson,
halted in front Of it, when their comman-
der. Captain Lyon, demanded and promptly
received the surrender Of the Confederate
camp with its twelve hundred embryo sol
diers.
This bold and sagacious act caused great
rejoicing throughout the West, but
specially in such parts Of Illinois as were
tributary TO St Louis. The newspapers
Of the day were filed with accounts Of the
affair and Captain Lyon ut once came into
prominence. But his career of glory was
doomed to be short, as he fell precisely
three months later ut Wilson's creek
Our little county, rs stated in previous
paper, furnished company OF three
months men at the first call in April, 1861 (;
these, before their time had fully expired,
came home on furlough, preparatory to
entering the three years service, for
which period they had rc-enlisted. Those
from our community came walking in
from toward the railroad station one
bright June morning, dressed in their
fresh, new uniforms Coats Of dark or
navy blue, with bright, brass buttons,
pants light blue, neat caps with long
visors, and their blankets Of gray WOODEN,
neatly rolled and thrown gracefully over
their shoulders. Thus seen, soldering"
looked inviting to a boy not yet eighteen
During the summer Of 1861 "A man came
along and hired out upon the farm where
the writer was working. He stated
that he was from near Springfield
Mo-, where he had owned "A weil-stocked
farm, but that the country being overrun
by the contending armies every thing had
been stripped or" and he was glad to get
away HIS family had gone TO some rela-
tives in Indiana while he sought to earn a
little money by hard work. He was the
first Union refugee seen by the writer.
The battle of Bull Run In the East and
Wilson's creek in the West were the prin-
cipal engagements during the summer OF
1861.
The writer remembers anxiously watch.
ing the papers during the summer and
autumn Of that year, instlnctively hoping
10 read of the Confederates being over
whelmed by our forces. But his hopes
were not gratifed; that bit of philos-
ophy, "The mills Of the gods grind
slowly but surely" he had yet to learn.
During the winter OF lS6l-2 the writer
taught district school in remote and
sparsely-settled section, seven miles from
a post-otfice, where papers week old were
not considered stale.
Not till long after it was fought January
10, 1862, Mill Spring, General Thomas first
battle, was read an account of the whole
matter. Here the Confederate forces were
beaten and put to fight, General Zolli-
Golfer killed, their lines penetrated and
broken at Bowling Green. Even in this
early period every neighborhoOd had one
or more representatives in the army, and
during the winter the writer remembers
serving upon several occasions as amanu-
ensis to some of his employers, who were
poor penmen, answering letters from sol.
diers at the 'front.'
Towards night one dreary, foggy day in
February, 1852 the boom of cannon was
heard away off to the southwest. Next
day ii was learned that a great victory had
been won. That Fort Donelson, on the
Tennessee river, had fallen. Fifteen thou
sand Confederates were reported captured,
with all their arms and aCcoutrements.
The cannonading heard proved to be tn G
firing of National salute at st. Louis,
more than forty miles distant. Meeting q
party next day who had seen the papers
and read an account Of the whole affair,
the writer INQUIRED the name of the Union
commander.
The answer was "Geasrdi Grant,"
"Grant ?" "Grant," said the writer,
'never heard of him, who is he. what's his
rank 2 where's he from !"
Don't know Just who he isl was the
reply, except that he Is Brigadlcr-Gen-
cral and is from Illinois"
The writer remembers feeling shade of
disappointment at the time that an en-
tircly new and unknown man should all at
once come into such prominence and, so 10
speak eclipse men with familiar names.
Fort Donelson surrendered February II,
1862, and it must have been the evening of
February IA that the salute was heard.
1t is unusual for cannonading to be heard
forty miles and more distant, but the damp,
heavy atmosphere CT the time together
with the level prairie over which the sound
wave traversed had much 70 do with the
long distance reached.
In singular contrast to this experience
was that at Perryville, October 8, 1867,
when in the afternoon y severe and
bloody battle was fought by McCeok's
corps of the army Of the Ohio, two and
one-half miles from the headquarters Of
the Commander, but he notwithstanding
failed TO hear the sound of battle.
In recent article on the battle OF Shiloh,
General Buell. expresses surprise that the
Commander of the army should unwilling
ly permit the foe TO approach with large
force, encamp over night within one and
one half miles of his lines and next morn
ing attack with large army! Not stranger
is it, that another Commander should re-
main quietly at his headquarters for a
whole afternoon in blissful ignorance OF
the fact that one wing of his army was en-
gagged in perilous battle, but two and one
half miles distant!
But that the latter circumstance hap
pened, Buell. himself testities and offers in
explanation the peculiar conhguration OF
the country and the prevalence of strong
wind from his headquarters toward the
corps engaged. War as well as peace has
its anomalies.
In the autumn Of 1861 the people began
to be impatient with what was deemed the
needless inactivity of the Army of the Po-
tomac under Mcclellan, and concerning
him and that organization the phrase;
"AN quist on the Potomdc,n first used as an
expressive indication of no demonstration
by either friend or foe in Virginia, came
as the period of inaction heightened, to
haze satrcal meaning.
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